Happy Hour Discurso

Today’s opining on the public discourse.

You know what? I give up. The Con party is full of too many hopeless nutcases right now for me to believe some breath of sanity may return to our political discourse. You find the occasional sane Republican trapped in the psychotic rabble like a lonely xenolith, but they’re rare. The vast majority of Cons are wildly unfit to govern. I wouldn’t trust them to govern an elementary school pageant, much less a country.

You know the fuckwits are beyond salvaging when they’re forming a coup caucus:

Late last week, Sen. Jim DeMint (R) of South Carolina became the first U.S. senator to break with the position of the government and endorse the military-backed coup in Honduras. He issued a statement denouncing the democratically-elected president and heralding those responsible for the coup as “guarantee[ing] freedom.”

He, apparently, wasn’t the last. Mark Leon Goldberg reports today on the emergency of a congressional coup caucus.

Support for the coup in Honduras extends beyond the pages of right wing political magazines to the United States Congress. Tomorrow, the House Committee on Foreign Affairs Ranking Member Ileana Ros-Lehtinen will host a private meeting for her Republican colleagues with former Honduran President Ricardo Maduro and former Costa Rican Ambassador to the U.S. Jaime Daremblum. According to the invitation, obtained by UN Dispatch, “President Maduro will help to outline the sequence of events leading to the shift in power in Honduras and removal of Manuel Zelaya; provide insight into Honduran constitutional authorities; and discuss how the U.S. can now work to support the democratic institutions and rule of law in Honduras.” Ambassador Daremblum will discuss his Weekly Standard piece titled “A Coup for Democracy.”

In related news, Florida Republican Connie Mack is circulating a congressional resolution that effectively supports the coup. So far, the Congressional Coup Caucus includes Dan Burton (Republican from Indiana), Jeff Fortenberry (Republican from Nebraska) and Dana Rohrabacher (Republican from California) who are co-sponsoring the resolution.

These dumbshits don’t understand democracy in the least. And no one exemplifies that dumbfuckery more than DeMint:

Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC) today defended Honduran President Manuel Zelaya’s recent removal from office by the Honduran military. In the course of defending the military coup, DeMint attacked President Obama for having what he called an “ad hoc and personalized foreign policy that seems less about supporting the rule of law than it is about supporting particular rulers.” Zelaya’s “removal from office was no more a coup than was Gerald Ford’s ascendence to the Oval Office or our newest colleague Al Franken’s election to the Senate,” DeMint claimed.

Al Franken’s election wasn’t a coup, you fucktard. He was duly elected under the laws of this land. The military didn’t scoop him up, deposit him in the Senate, and bodily haul Coleman out of the country. Gerald Ford acended to the Presidency precisely as the Constitution directs. Apparently, these democratic niceties are beyond your ken.

You and Sarah Palin both need to go spend some quality time with Christy Hardin Smith’s Schoolhouse Rock collection:

Criminy. The woman has been governor of Alaska for the last few years.

She just finished a run at the Vice Presidency wherein, by admission of McCain campaign staffers, they tried to stuff her brain full of governmental knowledge in massive cram sessions for the Veep debate.

And THIS is what comes tra-la-ing out of Bailin’ Palin’s mouth on ABC?

But when I asked Palin if she ever decided to pursue national office again, as she did less than a year ago when she joined Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., in the race for the White House, wouldn’t she encounter the same political blood sport? Can such ugliness ever be avoided?

Palin said there is a difference between the White House and what she has experienced in Alaska. If she were in the White House the “department of law” would protect her from baseless ethical allegations.

“I think on a national level your department of law there in the White House would look at some of the things that we’ve been charged with and automatically throw them out,” she said.

There is no “Department of Law” at the White House.

Why do I feel the need to express mail a copy of the full School House Rock cartoon DVDs to Palin with a lovely hand-penned card telling her to watch the whole thing and take notes?

Probably because she has no fucking clue how the federal government actually works:

It’s tempting to think Palin may have been referring to the Justice Department, but it’s not “in the White House,” and it doesn’t have the authority to “throw out” charges against the president. Maybe she’s thinking of the White House Counsel’s Office, but again, it has the ability to defend against allegations, not “look at some of the things that we’ve been charged with and automatically throw them out.”

Indeed, the very assumption that a president is somehow shielded or protected against allegations is itself misguided.

Exactly.

Alaska’s not the only state beginning with the letter A to have an egregiously stupid Con making a damn fool of themselves on the national stage. Arizona’s got Jon Kyl (among an abundance of other asses), who thinks nuclear proliferation is teh awesome:

Yesterday, President Obama and Russian President Dmitri Medvedev signed an agreement to negotiate a successor to the soon-to-expire START treaty that would “cut American and Russian strategic nuclear arsenals by at least one-quarter.” Sen. Jon Kyl (R-AZ) — “seasoned killer of past arms control treaties” — responded to news of the agreement on Bill Bennett’s radio show this morning by claiming that the Obama administration is “more anxious to make a deal than it is to ensure the protection of the United States.” Bennett told Kyl that he “didn’t think the reductions in missiles by the amount they were doing it was that serious,” but asked him to elaborate:

KYL: In the past, our assessment of what we need to protect our interests as well as the allies that rely on our nuclear umbrella put the number of weapons as a certain level. And the administration is planning to go far below that. … I’m very concerned that the administration is more anxious to make a deal than it is to ensure the protection of the United States.

[snip]

And despite Kyl’s attempts to portray Obama’s commitment yesterday to eliminate just a portion of the U.S. nuclear arsenal as detrimental to U.S. national security, James Collins and Jack Matlock remind us that former President Ronald Reagan and Soviet Premier Mikhail Gorbachev “came within a hair’s breadth of agreeing to the complete elimination of nuclear weapons within 10 years” during their 1986 summit.

That Reagan was such an America-hating national security wimp, wasn’t he, Jon? Jon? Helloo?

Funny. Cat seems to have suddenly got his tongue.

At least we know the “make war, not peace” constituency is abundantly represented. So is the racist demographic:

Conservatives have chosen a strange leader to spearhead their charge against Judge Sotomayor — Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL). With only days remaining until Sotomayor’s confirmation hearings begin, Sessions has focused his attacks on Sotomayor’s past service on the board of the Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund (PRLDEF), a leading civil rights organization that Sessions calls “extreme” because it “brought several race discrimination lawsuits for minorities” while Sotomayor sat on its board.

Setting aside the facial absurdity of this attack — race discrimination is illegal, a fact which apparently also bothers Sessions — it’s puzzling that conservatives would let Sessions be their public face of opposition against the first Latina nominated to the Supreme Court, especially in light of his own checkered history with race.

In 1986, Sessions’ nomination to the federal bench was rejected by the Senate because of Sessions’ deep-seated hostility to the very notion of civil rights. In comments that are strikingly similar to his recent attacks on PRLDEF, Sessions attacked the NAACP as an “un-American” and “Communist-inspired” organization that “forced civil rights down the throats of people.”

[snip]

Nor were Sessions’ attacks on the NAACP an isolated incident. As a federal prosecutor, Sessions conducted a tenuous criminal investigation into voting rights advocates that registered African-Americans to vote, an investigation that culminated in an unsuccessful prosecution against a former aide to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Additionally, an African-American attorney who once worked for Sessions testified at his hearings that Sessions said that he “used to think [the KKK] were OK” until he found out some of them were “pot smokers.” The same attorney also recalled being called “boy” by Sessions and being told to “be careful what you say to white folks” after Sessions overheard him chastising a white secretary.

Attention, Cons in the audience: whenever you wonder why I spend so much time denigrating, demolishing, and otherwise disrespecting Cons in general, consider the fact that you keep electing racist, sexist, egregiously stupid fuckers to office, where other racist, sexist, egregiously stupid fuckers elevate them to leadership positions.

Consider also the fact that every time your glorious leaders raise hell about morality, ethics and all that, they somehow stop shrieking the second one of their own gets caught with his hand in the cookie jar or his dick in the wrong place:

This week, Sanford seems to have convinced Republicans to let him stick around.

The
South Carolina Republican Party voted to censure Gov. Mark Sanford Monday — rather than call for his resignation — an outcome that makes it likely the GOP governor will be able to weather the storm surrounding his extramarital affair and remain in office.

The vote of the state GOP executive committee took place late Monday night following a nearly four-hour-long conference call and three rounds of ballots aimed at getting a majority of the committee to either censure, support or ask the governor to resign.

The censure finally agreed to by the committee called the governor’s behavior a breach of “the public’s trust and confidence in his ability to effectively perform the duties of his office.”

Sanford was also criticized by the committee for failing to adhere to the “core principles and beliefs” of the Republican Party, though the censure noted that “barring further revelation” Monday’s action would be “the party’s last word on the matter.”

The final vote was 22 to censure, 10 calling for resignation and 9 supporting the governor.

The party chair said in a statement that “now is the time for healing,” which is apparently a subtle way of saying, “We’re going to stop calling for his resignation.” Indeed, the Politico reported that the party’s censure vote — which has no practical meaning and is effectively a rhetorical slap on the wrist — may ensure Sanford’s “outright political survival.”

Note that the “family values, marriage is sacred, blah blah blah” culture warrior Cons made just enough of a fuss to convince the naive that they were really serious about this stuff and would toss Sanford out on his ear. Then they welcomed him back with open arms. Can we say “outrageous fucking hypocrites,” children?

How about “dishonest sacks of shit:”

As I noted below, the National Republican Senatorial Committee’s new Web ad depicts Al Franken as a raging nut-job — but it actually uses footage of Franken talking about the late Minnesota Senator Paul Wellstone to do it.

Here’s another wrinkle. The statement that NRSC spokesperson Brian Walsh sent me about the ad links to a notoriously debunked fake pic of Franken in diapers.

The link came in this sentence from the NRSC statement making a tongue-in-cheek offer to substitute other photos for the b-roll used in the ad: “We’ll certainly consider substituting it for this one if they would prefer though.” That links to this photo (click to enlarge):

But the thing is, this photo was revealed to have been faked by the Ohio GOP back in 2006. What’s more, as David Kurtz notes, this fact was widely reported yesterday after an Ohio columnist used the faked photo.

And yet, the NRSC is still selectively editing the Wellstone-Franken footage to put a dishonest spin on it, and playing dumb with a fake photo, even though all it does is make them look like a bunch of middle-school bullies. Only people with a mental age of 12 think this shit is clever.

Here’s the upshot, my darlings: politics is a dirty business, and Dems have a definite bit of mud spattered on them here and there. But they look like a compulsive cleaner’s kitchen compared to Cons. I’ll take slightly grubby over cesspit any day, thank you very much.

Happy Hour Discurso
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Happy Hour Discurso

Today’s opining on the public discourse.

After a detailed and thorough analysis, one can only conclude that 4 out of 5 Americans are fake:

It’s a real shame MSNBC’s Mika Brzezinski, who seems to be moving further and further to the right with each passing week, didn’t learn the appropriate lessons from last fall. This morning, in an incoherent defense of Sarah Palin, Brzezinski said people attended Palin rallies during the campaign because “they agree with her.” (Brilliant analysis. People attend rallies for politicians they like? Remarkable!)

Brzezinski added, “Look at the polls out there. Look at where people stand on life. Look what real Americans think…. In the cities where there are a little more liberal elite populations, you’re not going to find what’s representative of America.”

Asked who the “real” Americans are, Brzezinski, perhaps unaware what the question meant, said, “I think [Palin’s] views actually do.” I don’t know what this means. Perhaps I’m not “real” enough.

Brzezinski went on to complain that some in the “mainstream media” don’t agree with Palin, but “real” Americans do. She said, more than once, “Look at the polls.”

This is just sad. Four out of five Americans live in urban areas (for the record, I’m not one of them). Most Americans do not want to see Roe overturned. Indeed, most Americans reject Palin’s worldview on most social, economic, foreign, or constitutional issues. Most Americans voted for and continue to support President Obama. I know this because I took Brzezinski’s advice and I “looked at the polls.” [emphasis added]

Actually, maybe more than four-fifths of Americans are fake, because according to Brzezinski, you have to also agree with Sarah Palin, and I’d imagine there’s a hefty batch of rural Americans who aren’t real enough to take that plunge into the deep end of the insanity pool. Conclusion: the vast majority of Americans are fake. Sing with me, now! “And I’m proud to be Fake American…”

While we’re on the subject of fakes, let’s check in with “Joe” the “Plumber.” Because, you know, even though his name and his job are total fabrications, he’s like 100% Real American, and I’m sure that makes him ever so much wiser than all us icky fakes. Oh, hey – he’s solved the immigration problem:

While protesting government spending at Houston’s Independence Day Tea Party, Joe “the Plumber” Wurzelbacher stated that American taxpayer dollars would be best spent on the mass deportation of 12 million undocumented immigrants:

WURZELBACHER: I believe in making sure our country is safe first. I believe we need to spend a little more on illegal immigrants. Get them the hell out of our damn country and close the borders down. We can do it. We’ve got the greatest military in the world and you’re telling me we can’t close our borders? — That’s just ridiculous.

[snip]

Wurzelbacher dedicated a private interview to saying that he’s tired of the government “sticking its hand” in his “back-pocket” and urging the government to “pull its head out of its butt.” Apparently he’s against bailouts and the stimulus bill, but he completely supports spending approximately $206 billion over five years, or $41.2 billion annually, to hunt down and deport all the undocumented immigrants living in the US. Joe probably doesn’t realize that such a policy would also mean a loss of $1.8 trillion in annual spending and $651.5 billion in annual output.

Yup. Definitely oh-so-much smarter than all us fakes.

Bored, now. It’s time for a good Dueling Cons match. I’m always willing to try something new. What we’ll do is put a Somewhat Sane Con up against a Batshit Insane Con, and see who the base goes for.

Somewhat Sane Con:

Ed Rollins, who has run many a Republican campaign, crushed Sarah Palin’s decision to quit her job as Alaska’s governor on CNN’s State of The Union yesterday. He called it a disaster and went as far as saying that he was insulted by it.

I guess she wants to go on the TV and the book tour circuit instead of helping Alaskans who voted her into office. Times are tough right now and she’d rather leave them all behind than try to help them get through this economic meltdown. Rollins didn’t pull any punches.

ED ROLLINS, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: I think yesterday was a disaster, Friday was a disaster for her both in the sense that she was very incoherent in articulating why she was quitting and what she wanted to do with it.

And as I always say, you call press conferences to answer questions, not to basically raise questions. I think the serious thing here is 311 days ago, very few people in America, very few Republicans outside of Alaska knew who this woman was. She had a tremendous first few weeks as a campaigner, but she got super imposed on top of the Republican establishment. It’s sort of like taking a helicopter and putting her on top of Mt. Everest, which John McCain was flying it.

Everybody else climbed up that ladder, and all of the sudden she’s on top of the mountain. She didn’t like it — or she did like the top of the mountain. What she didn’t like was coming back to Earth, flying back to Alaska to her job as governor.

Batshit Insane Con:

I suspect Ann Coulter didn’t really intend, appearing yesterday on Fox News with Marc Lamont Hill, to open a big wide window for everyone to see in brilliantly illuminated color the deep, sneering contempt in which your average Republican pundit actually holds all of those “hard-working average Americans” they normally profess to represent.

But she did:

Coulter: I think it’s brilliant. And I’m baffled by people bei
ng baffled by it. Um, I mean, she’s a huge, huge star. And meanwhile she’s stuck up in Ulan Bator, she can neither respond to her many admirers who want her to come speak down in the Lower 48, and want her, you know, to be raising money for them, starting PACs, and being the voice of conservatism, which she is. She can’t do that, or she’ll be neglecting the state.

… Look, she’s a lame-duck governor, it isn’t her fault that she became a huge, huge star, but she is too big for the position now. And people acting like, you know, leaving a governorship is a step down.

Betting is now open. I’m sure you’ve already guessed that the smart money’s on the base making a beeline for the batshit insanity while gathering pitchforks and torches for Rollins.

Maybe that’s where all the Teabaggers were:

And loneliness was de rigueur (ooh, look French) all over the place.

It was more than the heat that had people hot under the collar this Independence Day at Southfork Ranch…Organizers billed the gathering as the largest tea party in the nation, saying crowds could reach 50,000…

As the event kicked off at 3 p.m., only a smattering of people had gathered in the grassy field in front of the stage.

Yes, of course crowds could reach 50,000 – but you’d have to furiously clone the 50 or so who actually showed up.

We should probably stop poking fun at Teabaggers, though. There’s stupid politicians needing a spanking. Let’s begin with Eric Cantor:

Last week, House Republicans, who’ve been wrong about every significant economic development of the last few decades, felt comfortable arguing that the economic stimulus package passed in February “is not working.” Paul Krugman called this kind of analysis “insane,” in large part because “hardly any of the money has flowed to the economy yet.”

Today, House Minority Whip Eric Cantor (R-Va.) went a step further. We’ve gone from “is not working” to “did not” work in just a few days.

Pushing back against a possible second stimulus bill, Cantor asserted that the Obama administration-backed first $787 billion stimulus has not worked, and insisted that characterization has now become consensus.

“I think we all need to recognize that the first attempt of the stimulus bill did not stimulate the economy,” Cantor said in a conference call sponsored by the Republican National Committee (RNC). “I think we all agree on that now.”

Who’s “we all”? Apparently, Cantor and his right-wing cohorts who got together for a chat.

“We all” sure as shit don’t include those of us intelligent enough to realize that the stimulus a) is going to take at least a year before we see a big jolt from it and b) that the fucking thing got so watered down by Cons pissing all over it that it became weak tea as compared to Red Bull.

Cons must have some kind of congenital defect that prevents them from seeing reality. Take John Boehner, for instance:

During the July 5 edition of Fox Broadcasting Co.’s Fox News Sunday, host Chris Wallace let stand House Minority Leader John Boehner’s false claim that “[i]n Ohio, the infrastructure dollars that were sent there months ago,” as part of the economic recovery package, “there hasn’t been a contract let, to my knowledge. And the fact is is that I don’t believe it will create jobs.” In fact, in a June 15 update on the state’s stimulus spending, the Ohio Department of Transportation (ODOT) stated, “Combined with the contracts awarded so far using funds from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, ODOT has awarded more than $83.9 million in contracts for work on 52 projects — a combination of interstate, local roadway and bridge modernization projects.” The department’s statement continued:

As contracts are awarded, construction companies begin to mobilize workers for these jobs. Jobs are also being created and retained by firms that provide materials and equipment used in highway construction, and those jobs supported by consumer expenditures resulting from wages to ‘construction oriented’ and ‘supporting industries’ employment.

A June 8 Associated Press article reported: “President Barack Obama’s $787 billion economic spending package reached Ohio’s roads Monday when construction crews began work on a highway project in Cleveland. The $1.8 million project will widen a ramp from Interstate 490 to Interstate 77, and other stimulus projects are scheduled to begin in weeks.”

Ideology blinds the stupid fuck to the jobs created and contracts awarded in his own fucking state. Remarkable. And remember, these blind-ass dumb fucking douchebags claim they’d do a better job running the country.

I’ll let you ponder their previous record and come to your own conclusions:

Paul Krugman called it correctly:

You can offer various excuses and explanations, but how anyone can suggest that Republicans are more committed to and/or credible about job creation is a mystery

.

jobsjobsjobs_7394c_0.png

Yup.

Happy Hour Discurso

Happy Hour Discurso

Today’s opining on the public discourse.

Have I mentioned I hate holiday weekends? I hates them. Because the news is ssssllllooooowwwww….arrggghhhh….

But we have a few shiny pearls o’ stupid to admire.

We’ll begin with Sarah Palin, mainly because a) she’s almost all anyone’s talking about and b) she continues to prove herself so egregiously stupid it’s very nearly beyond belief. Here’s the latest move, as she attempts to silence the media:

This is a bad idea.

Ratcheting up her offensive against the news media, Gov. Sarah Palin’s attorney threatened Saturday to sue mainstream news organizations if they publish “defamatory” stories relating to whether Palin is under federal investigation.

In an extraordinary four-page letter, Alaska-based attorney Thomas Van Flein warns of severe consequences should speculation that until now has largely been confined to blogs about whether Palin embezzled funds in the construction of a Wasilla, Alaska, sports arena find its way into print.

“This is to provide notice to Ms. Moore, and those who re-publish the defamation, such as Huffington Post, MSNBC, the New York Times and The Washington Post, that the Palins will not allow them to propagate defamatory material without answering to this in a court of law,” Van Flein warned, citing Alaska liberal blogger Shannyn Moore.

Keep in mind, neither the New York Times nor the Washington Post made any reference to the embezzlement rumors, but Palin’s lawyers apparently threatened the papers anyway, just in case editors were thinking about looking into the allegations.

Hmm… what was that Shakespeare said about ladies protesting too much? And reporters are a prickly lot – tell ’em they can’t do something, and you might just see ’em do it out of spite. I have a feeling her poor-ass ethics record and her possible corruption scandals are about to get a fuck of a lot more attention than they would’ve otherwise.

Good.

She’s toast, anyway. William Kristol looked into his Kristol Ball, and the news is all bad:

This morning on Fox News Sunday, Weekly Standard Editor Bill Kristol reaffirmed his “contrarian” take on Gov. Sarah Palin’s (R-AK) recent decision to quit. The “Kristol Ball” argued that Palin is now “all in” for a “high risk” presidential run. Depending on her “talents and abilities” Kristol used a strained comparison to President Obama to lay out Palin’s winding road to the White House:

KRISTOL: Everyone said [Obama couldn’t] compete with people with these long records. … He seems to have gotten President. I don’t think it is foolish for Palin to think, “You know what, if that’s the world we live in now where people don’t value — maybe correctly — experience in years of experience in Washington, or two terms counts more than two and half years as Governor of Alaska. Maybe she thinks she gets out there and becomes a leader of the conservative movement, and then a leader of the Republican Party, and then conceivably a nominee of the Republican Party, and then conceivably a president just as Obama did.

Why do I say such a sunny prediction is bad news? Because the Kristol Ball usually predicts the opposite of what’s about to happen. She’s total toast.

And here’s a little something to keep in mind:

Kudos to the Washington Post‘s Dan Balz for addressing one of the more nonsensical explanations for Sarah Palin’s resignation.

[snip]

“I thought about, well, how much fun some governors have as lame ducks,” she said. “They maybe travel around their state, travel to other states, maybe take their overseas international trade missions. So many politicians do that. And then I thought, that’s what is wrong. . . . They hit the road, they draw a paycheck, they kind of milk it, and I’m not going to put Alaskans through that.”

That is a fundamental misunderstanding of the responsibilities of governing. Every president becomes a lame duck in his second term. The same for governors, since many are term-limited. Do they “milk it,” as Palin put it, or do most continue working hard to the end to finish off their terms with real accomplishments?

Well said. Palin decided not to seek re-election, which was almost certainly a bad idea, but would presumably give the governor more of an opportunity to run full-time for the presidency. She’s decided, though, that half a term is not only sufficient, but also that meeting her obligations and fulfilling her duties would be a bad thing. Voters are supposed to thank her for quitting half-way through her only term, because lame-duck leaders are, she says, by their very definition, ineffective and wasteful.

In reality, Palin’s argument once again points to her confusion about the basics of government. In this case, the governor had a choice. She could be a lame-duck governor who travels around, goofs off, and kills time until the next election. She could quit after two years. Or she could roll up her sleeves, work hard, pursue the policy agenda she claims to take seriously, and do the job.

Apparently, actually doing her job never actually crossed her mind. Something that should cross our minds if the insane fucktard actually does try to make a run for the presidency.

In non-Palin news, we have Colin Powell pointing out the GOP’s little racism problem:

When host John King asked about the GOP’s “sensitivity” toward minorities, Powell took aim at Limbaugh directly, firing back at his claim that Powell only supported Obama’s candidacy for president because he is black:

POWELL: And when you have non-elected officials such as we have in our party who immediately shout racism or somebody who is quite prominent in the media says the only basis upon which I could possibly have supported Obama was because he was black and I was black even though I laid out my judgment on the candidates, then we still have a problem.

Oh, you betcha.

And last, but certainly not least, comes this absolute gem, showing that Teabaggers are still slavering batshit insane fools, and the Con party keeps trying to look all responsible and sane in public while simultaneously fucking themselves over with teh technology (h/t):

The Republican Party of Duval County is backing away from their promotion of an event that featured numerous controversial comparisons of President Barack Obama with German Dictator Adolf Hitler. The event, a Tea Party held at the Jacksonville Landing on July 2, was organized by the First Coast Tea Party. However, the Duval County Republican Party promoted the event with e-mails that stated “Paid by Republican Party of Duval County.” Duval Republican Party Chairman Lenny Curry also broadcasted live from the event on the party’s weekly radio broadcast hosted by AM 1320.

The event, which was attended by Florida State Representatives Lake Ray, Charles McBurney and Mike Weinstein and Florida State Senator Stephen Wise, drew about 1,000 people to the Jacksonville Landing. Local party officials were on stage, along with numerous members of the Jacksonville business community, including Jay Fant of First Guaranty Bank.

While partisan rhetoric at any rally is expected, controversy has arisen over numerous signs that were prominently displayed at the gathering, including two that featured Barack Obama in Nazi garb. One sign, in fact, had altered Obama’s appearance to resemble Hitler. Other signs compared ACORN, the community organizing group accused of voter registration irregularities, with the SS—the Nazi organization responsible for enacting the Holocaust and the group responsible for most of the crimes against humanity committed by the Third Reich.

Several local GOP activists privately expressed shock that elected officials would be seen at any event that featured comparisons of Obama with Hitler. What surprised some of them the most; however, was the fact that the Duval County Republican Party would feature pictures from the event—complete with Obama/Hitler comparisons—on their Facebook fan page.

Apparently, they didn’t see the problem with proudly posting such pictures until wiser people pointed it out to them. How pathetic is that? What’s even more pathetic is that they didn’t get them pulled before bloggers got screen shots.

I just might have to get one of them printed and framed as a testament to Con stupidity.

Happy Hour Discurso

Happy Hour Discurso

Today’s opining on the public discourse.

T’ain’t much, I’m afraid – it’s a holiday weekend and all, and Aunty Flow and I have been busy watching the fireworks anyway. I hope you all enjoyed yourselves very muchly.

A few wee items, but good items. But let’s start with a game. Let’s play Fantasy vs. Reality with Sarah Palin! Also!

Fantasy (from her July 4th message on Facebook):

First, I want to thank you for your support and hard work on the values we share. Those values led me to the decision my family and I made. Yesterday, my family and I announced a decision that is in Alaska’s best interest and it always feels good to do what is right. We have accomplished more during this one term than most governors do in two – and I am proud of the great team that helped to build these wonderful successes.

Reality:

The outgoing governor’s press office put together a list of Palin “accomplishments,” which is quite thin.

Indeed, some of the points aren’t really “accomplishments” at all. “Maintained biologically-sound wildlife management” is not an accomplishment. Turning down a pay raise is not an accomplishment. The list boasts that Palin filled vacancies to state positions, but if that’s an accomplishment, her administration has lowered the bar pretty low, since that’s one of those basic duties for all governors.

My personal favorite was the list’s reference to recent U.S. Supreme Court rulings regarding Alaska — as if the justices’ work counts as one of her own personal “accomplishments.”

Uh-oh, reality wins! But thank you for playing, Sarah! You betcha!

You may have noticed she was lying about her “accomplishments.” She always lies. It’s what she does:

Even the seemingly innocuous interview in Runner’s World, with its bizarre, braggadocio boast of her having more endurance than Obama, revealed her penchant for duplicity at every turn: the assertion that an injury she had sustained while jogging in Arizona had been kept top-secret, a contention thoroughly disputed by the inimitable Mudflats.

One of my favorite lies spewed by Palin today in yet another poorly scripted speech was that she campaigned for governor “four years ago…,” when she, in fact, ran for governor three years ago and held her position for little more than two-and-half years. It’s the little lies she always tells, the twists of truth, the distortions. Four years sounds like nearly a full term; three feels incomplete. So why not just call it four?

You may wonder how such a delusional lying twit has a following. Just remember how many delusional lying twits there are in America. Right now, most of them are busy being delusional over what Sarah’s quitting really means:

The right is collectively imploding over Sarah Palin’s resignation, and as with any sort of passing there comes a period of grieving. Two major stages in that process are denial and anger, and the always-classy Erick Erickson of RedState is already showing signs of both:

1. Sarah Palin resigned, I think, to spare her family from more attacks. I don’t think it is a coincidence that Sarah Palin is doing this just days after a very nasty Vanity Fair article where folks like Nicolle Wallace and, according to Bill Kristol, McCain campaign manager Steve Schmidt (though I’m told Schmidt is not involved), savaged her.

2. Unfortunately, by resigning, I think the left and national media will be emboldened to ritualistically engage in the metaphorical gang raping of conservative politicians, particularly those who are female and have children. They’ll decide savaging Palin’s family drove her from office, so the sky’s the limit on the next conservative with kids.

Finally, Erickson goes flat out delusional, comparing Palin’s resignation to Obi Wan Kenobi taking one for the team and sacrificing it all to fight the dark side:

4. I’ve had this running thought all day, perhaps because I was watching it on TV in HD for the first time, that this is kind of like Ben Kenobi letting Darth Vader strike him down. Palin is not going to run in 2012, but by doing this she can now become Barack Obama’s worst nightmare, and help rebuild the opposition to Obama.

Is comparing Palin to Kenobi considered psychosis? I’m pretty sure it is. The man’s had a complete break with reality. And now perhaps you understand how such a perfect dumbfuck still manages to have a loyal following.

So, did you see any Teabaggers while you were out? Any of them pathetically trying to pretend they were part of a huge crowd? Did you have a good laugh at their expense?

So we went to Tea Party July 3 in La Canada Flintridge, a suburb about 20 miles from Hollywood in the foothills of the Angeles Crest, at an estate used for weddings and other events. It was, like all Tea Parties, a mix of fed-up-with-tax-folks, anti-Obama-ists, No-New-World-Order organizers, UN haters, anti-immigrationists, and waaaay too much BeDazzled red, white and blue clothing on the 300 attendees.

[snip]

Speeches ranged from “the bread you eat is not bread, it’s a loaf of taxes, from the land the wheat grows on, to the seeds, to the machines to till the ground, taxes are paid. The gasoline that runs the tillers, the machines that that thresh the wheat, taxes are paid on those. The truck that hauls the wheat taxes were paid to buy it, to run it to put gas in it; the driver has a drivers license, which is a form of tax…” Yeah, well whatever, taxes are foundation of a civil society. So we went to the food area to grab a some grilled meat on a heavily taxed bun and mayo-plus starch salad which our $10 admission covered.

The head teabag grill guy, proud in his “We the People” tee shirt barked

Jose, we need more burgers!

There was no please, no thank you. And I wondered about Jose and his family and how they would be affected by all the plans these teabaggers had, and about the other maintenance staff at the estate who were Hispanic, the guys I saw sweeping up and emptying the trash and the whole thing was so effing gross especially because the guy yammering now at the mic was going on about how we are giving jobs to foreigners and outsourcing phone center jobs to “Bangadore.” Fer realz, he said “Bangadore.”

You really see why they love Palin so now, dontcha? She’s definitely one of them: ignorant, arrogant, and offensive.

Not much could top Palin for overwhelming stupid, but man, you can always count on the fine fucktards at Faux News to make even the craziest Con pol look soberly sane by comparison:

Via Media Matters, more proof that professional windbag Rush Limbaugh has run out of anything that might even charitably be considered as a legitimate thought. Only the truly brain-dead among his fans will swallow the latest uttering:

While fans the world over mourn the passing of the King of Pop, the King of Talk, Rush Limbaugh, put the death of Michael Jackson this way: He “flourished under Reagan,” “languished under Clinton/Bush, and died under Obama.” Over on MSNBC, both David Shuster and Chuck Todd poked Limbaugh for his unsavory take on the tragedy, with Todd quipping, “It’s always Reagan, right?”

Meanwhile, El Rushbo’s pals over at Fox News knew exactly how to interpret the wall-to-wall coverage of Jackson’s death. An actual Fox News chyron alleged a “cover-up” because the media were devoting more coverage to Jackson than cap-and-trade legislation. Lord, the fun one could have using this very rationale to pick apart the stories Fox chooses to cover. I guess when you’re a hammer, everything is a … wild conspiracy designed to frighten your audience and fan the flames of their paranoia.

Limbaugh’s blamed Obama for so much ridiculous shit I’ve lost track, and Faux News is always blaming everything on Teh Evul Libruls, but I’ll never forget this one. I just never thought they’d actually blame Michael Jackson’s death on Obama.

Congratulations, Faux. You’ve hit a low I didn’t even realize could exist on a national news station. Historians are gonna have sooo much fun with this era…

Happy Hour Discurso

Happy Hour Discurso

Today’s opining on the public discourse.

Well, this is a hell of a way to begin a holiday weekend:

Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin (R) decided to shake up an otherwise slow news day with an astounding announcement: not only has she decided to skip a re-election campaign next year, she’s also resigning from office altogether later this month.

“Gov. Sarah Palin will resign her office in a few weeks, she said during a news conference at her Wasilla home Friday morning.

Lt. Gov. Sean Parnell will be inaugurated at the Governor’s Picnic at Pioneer Park in Fairbanks on Saturday, July 25, Palin said.

There was no immediate word as to why she will resign, though speculation has been rampant that the former vice presidential candidate is gearing up for a run at the 2012 Republican presidential nomination.

Did your eyes pop when you first got the news? Mine did. And I’m salivating, too, because this might end up being juicy:

Update: This just in my inbox, from a source connected sometimes to CNN:

“Here’s a quote I got from law enforcement here in Alaska yesterday afternoon regarding Palin “a criminal indictment is pending authorization.”

Oooo, and what might that be about?

Max Blumental reports on The Daily Beast that Sarah Palin may have quit her job today because she was trying to avert a major, yet-to-be-disclosed corruption scandal. The gist of the rumor is that an Alaska building company called Spenard Building Supplies (SBS) was awarded a contract by Palin to build a hockey arena in Wasilla, AK, and in return, SBS helped construct Palin’s home:

Many political observers in Alaska are fixated on rumors that federal investigators have been seizing paperwork from SBS in recent months, searching for evidence that Palin and her husband Todd steered lucrative contracts to the well-connected company in exchange for gifts like the construction of their home on pristine Lake Lucille in 2002. The home was built just two months before Palin began campaigning for governor, a job which would have provided her enhanced power to grant building contracts in the wide open state.

SBS has close ties to the Palins. The company has not only sponsored Todd Palin’s snowmobile team, according to the Village Voice’s Wayne Barrett, it hired Sarah Palin to do a statewide television commercial in 2004.

Though Todd Palin told Fox News he built his Lake Lucille home with the help of a few “buddies,” according to Barrett’s report, public records revealed that SBS supplied the materials for the house. While serving as mayor of Wasilla, Sarah Palin blocked an initiative that would have required the public filing of building permits—thus momentarily preventing the revelation of such suspicious information.

Just months before Palin left city hall to campaign for governor, she awarded a contract to SBS to help build the $13 million Wasilla Sports Complex. The most expensive building project in Wasilla history, the complex cost the city an addition $1.3 million in legal fees and threw it into severe long-term debt. For SBS, however, the bloated and bungled project was a cash cow.

I didn’t go with my gut when Mark Sanford went missing. I chuckled quietly to myself and said, “Betcha he’s with a mistress,” but I decided it would be irresponsible to speculate. Fuck responsible. As Hilzoy said, “what’s the point of blogging if not to amass a record of your unfounded speculations so that you can go back and see how wrong you were?” I’m going with my gut: if a narcissistic, power-hungry, scandal-plagued, clueless git like Palin steps down suddenly, it’s not because of mental instability or a contractor getting a sports complex in return for building her house. My feeling is that when the real reason breaks, it’s going to be a lot bigger than that. I mean, make Mark Sanford’s wildly irresponsible jaunt to Argentina look positively pedestrian big.

We’ll see if I’ve called this one. No matter what happens, it shall be endlessly entertaining. Fuck, it already is – just watching her rabid followers try to spin this is going to be the greatest summer blockbuster of all time. Look, the trailer’s already out!

Fox is coming around, too. A little while ago, Stuart Varney said, “Let’s get back to this resignation,” before pausing to correct himself. “Not the resignation but stepping aside from the governorship.”

Nice. They have a euphemism for every occasion.

While Sarah Palin’s “Brave Sir Robin” act is utterly captivating, we must not forget that there’s a whole forest worth of stupid out there merrily burning. Why, the Family Research Council’s practically a forest unto itself:

The Family Research Council, arguably D.C.’s most influential religious right organization on social and cultural issues, picks its battles carefully — and applies its principles selectively.

For example, the FRC had closely allied itself with South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford (R), right up until his sex scandal, at which point the group no longer had anything to say about the governor. The FRC has apparently been saving up its outrage for Kevin Jennings, an Obama appointee to the Department of Education who (cue scary music) happens to be gay.

The Family Research Council has embarked on a new public relations effort against a particular Obama Administration appointee, Kevin Jennings, saying he should not be in his new position at the Department of Education because of his previous position in private activism — as executive director of GLSEN, the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network.

Jennings is set to begin his new job on Monday, as Assistant Deputy Secretary of Education for the Department’s Office of Safe and Drug-Free Schools, after his appointment was announced about a month ago. And this week, FRC launched a last
-minute Web petition to oppose him. It asks a pointed question: Would you choose this teacher to guide your children?

The far-right group has gone through a book Jennings wrote a few years ago about his life experiences, including his belief that the religious right movement should “drop dead,” to try to create a controversy where none exists.

Think Progress’s Amanda Terkel did the debunking of the FRC’s little “fact” sheet. I’m sure you’ll all be shocked to know there weren’t any facts on it.

Just as shocked as I’m sure you’ll be to see Glenn Beck stubbing his fingers on the bottom of the barrel trying to find something to smear liberals with:

Glenn Beck was frothing at the mouth this week — just before he went on an obviously much-needed vacation — about an obscure French book that is hard to obtain and which no one appears to be reading, aside from a handful of anarchist aesthetes:

While the government warns that right-wing extremists could be domestic terrorists, and The New York Times, says I could incite those crazy conservatives to violence, the extreme left is actively calling for violence!

As world economies go down the tank and unemployment continues to rise, disenfranchised people are set to explode.

The dangerous leftist book that could spark this is “The Coming Insurrection.” This is a call to arms for violent revolution, authored anonymously by a French group called the Invisible Committee who want to bring down capitalism.

[snip]

Funny thing about that. The extreme right — the people Glenn Beck wants you to forget all about — have actually been calling people to arms for a number of years now.

They’ve done it with books like The Turner Diaries and Hunter, as well as lesser-known texts such as Richard Kelly Hoskins’ Vigilantes of Christendom, Robert Pummer’s The Road Back to America, and Ben Klassen’s The White Man’s Bible. All these texts explicitly advocate the use of lethal violence on a massive scale in instituting white-supremacist rule. And they have roughly the same kind of circulation that The Coming Insurrection does.

Which is to say, they’re largely relegated to the fringes. But that doesn’t mean people don’t act on them — these books have in fact inspired the very kinds of acts of domestic terrorism that Beck wants to pretend away as just “isolated incidents” that have nothing, nothing at all!, to do with right-wing fearmongers like himself.

Glenn. When violent left-wing militias are lauded on mainstream teevee as “patriots,” when left-wing talkers can espouse the ideas found in that silly little anarchist book and be seen as serious pundits instead of raving fruitcakes, when the “extreme left” is synonymous with the Democratic party… then you can froth, and I won’t laugh my ass off at you. Until then, please stop trying so hard. I almost did myself an injury guffawing at your pathetic little “But Mommy, the other kids do it too!” whine.

Because, you see, Glenn, the difference between our side and your side is that our side still considers people on the extreme left to be ridiculously fringe, whereas you spout gobs of the most outrageous bullshit coming out of your extreme right as “common sense,” and only occasionally remember to condemn the violent parts for appearances’ sake.

Not that you’ll understand the difference, so we shall stop whacking you with the Smack-o-Matic, and instead turn our attention to Rick “Man on Dog” Santorum, who is still able to make headlines with teh stoopid:

On Tuesday, former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum discussed the Supreme Court’s recent 5-4 ruling in Ricci v. DeStefano on Frank Beckman’s radio show. The ruling overturned a decision made by Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor and two other judges on the 2nd Circuit. Though Santorum made the common conservative claim that all nine justices actually disagreed with Sotomayor, he went further than most, claiming that the liberal justices who dissented, particularly Justices Souter and Stevens, only dissented in order to “protect” Sotomayor:

SANTORUM: I could be wrong on this, but believe it or not, politics does inject itself into the Supreme Court and I think there were probably a lot of justices who may or may not have been on that side of that issue, but came down on that issue that way in a sense to protect her because she knew she was coming on the court, had to make sure she could get on the court. And to me, this should have been a nine-nothing decision.

Ladies and gentlemen, you can now stop wondering why Rick never made it to the Supreme Court, and instead is a former senator.

Not to be outdone, the Con party has replaced an egregiously stupid former senator with an even more stupid current one:

Sen. Jim DeMint (R) of South Carolina yesterday became the first U.S. senator to endorse the military-backed coup in Honduras. He issued a statement denouncing the democratically-elected president and heralding those responsible for the coup as “guarantee[ing] freedom.”

The statement comes about a week after DeMint unveiled his own health care plan, which amounted to little more than hundreds of billions of dollars for the insurance companies.

To get a better sense of what this guy all about, consider DeMint’s interview with Human Events, a right-wing magazine, to talk about his worldview, which included his belief that “most members of Congress lean socialist.”

[snip]

“Democracy cannot work when you have a majority of people dependent on the government. And this is not just the poor. The way we’ve set up Social Security and Medicare, everyone who retires are dependent, parents are dependent on the government for education of their children and now, if you look at the folks who come through my office — business people, farmers, bankers — everybody is coming to Washington to get their piece of
the government because we’re running all this money through here now.”

Just so we’re clear, an elected Republican senator believes Social Security, Medicare, and the existence of a public school system are necessarily threats to our functioning democracy.

And just think – he’s only one example among many ridiculous fools currently infesting the Senate courtesy of the GOP.

It’s a good thing this sort o’ burning stupid doesn’t release much greenhouse gas. Otherwise, we’d have reached the tipping point at least a year ago, and would now be innundated under several hundred feet of freshly-melted polar ice. Venus would be looking at us right now, saying, “Daaamn, Earth. I’ve seen some pretty incredible runaway greenhouse effects, but that’s extreme.”

Happy Hour Discurso

Happy Hour Discurso

Today’s opining on the public discourse.

Karl Rove flapped his yap again, and the results are highly entertaining:

Karl Rove cracks me up. Consider what he told Fox News this morning:

“This White House has carried pre-packaged, organized, controlled, scripted events to a new height, and they’re getting away with things that in any previous White House, the media would have eviscerated the press secretary and the White House for it.”

As a substantive matter, Rove was criticizing the president’s forum in Virginia yesterday on health care policy. Amanda Terkel contacted the White House about the logistics of the event, and it turns out, Rove’s criticism is just factually wrong.

But it takes an extraordinary amount of chutzpah for Karl Rove to complain about anyone hosting “pre-packaged, organized, controlled, scripted events.”

Perhaps Rove doesn’t remember the “Bubble Boy” policies used by Bush White House, but these folks quite literally wrote the book on “pre-packaged, organized, controlled, scripted events.” We’re talking about a White House that screened public audiences at public events based on bumper stickers and lapel pins. We’re talking about a White House that would limit ticket distribution to presidential events to local Republican Parties, and then still require “loyalty oaths” to get a ticket. We’re talking about a White House that would literally rehearse events in advance to make sure attendees said the right things to the president.

And don’t forget these greatest hits:

In March 2005, people seeking tickets to a Social Security event were quizzed about their support of President Bush and his Social Security plan ahead of time. In April 2005, Bush’s security detail threw out three people from an event in Colorado because they had a bumper sticker reading “No More Blood For Oil.” White House spokesman Trent Duffy said that if there’s any evidence people might “disrupt the president,” they “have the right to exclude those people from those events.”

Bush even screened the assembled group of soldiers he would meet in Iraq during a 2003 Thanksgiving visit: Soldiers had to fill out a questionnaire asking whether they supported Bush.

Is there a graduate school these fuckwits attend where they learn to perfect their hypocrisy? Or are they just naturally talented?

And let’s not forget that the party that likes to preen over their supposed patriotism is the party that practically worships this assclown:

One of the problems with trying to track the flood of wingnuttery emitted daily by Rush Limbaugh is that there’s so much of it, and it’s so ceaseless, that one becomes overwhelmed trying to keep up with it. But there’s been a thread in his commentary this past week that’s particularly dangerous, and it needs calling out.

It began on Monday, after the military coup in Honduras. Limbaugh went on the air and said this:

Limbaugh: So we’ve got hell breaking loose in Honduras. You know what we learned about Honduras? We learned the Obama administration tried to stop the coup. Now what was — the coup was what many of you wish would happen here, without the military.

The next day, describing Obama talking to troops about the withdrawal from Iraq, he described the president thus:

“This is a guy who sought their defeat.”

And then yesterday, he expanded on these thoughts even further:

This is Barack Obama, who led from the United States Senate his party into doing everything he could to ensure the defeat of the U.S. military. … This party was doing everything it could to impugn and dishonor the military.

This thread of commentary clearly is pushing toward a single thought — to push people in the armed forces into seeing Obama as a usurper and traitor, just like the Honduran president, and toward the idea that a similar military-based removal of him from office might be justified.

[snip]

Today Limbaugh added to the litany in a much more explicit fashion:

Limbaugh: And if we had any good luck, Honduras would send some people here and help us get our government back.

Let me get this straight. The people who whine and moan and complain about how Obama’s Europeanizing America, who foam at the mouth over immigrants, and who all hyperventilated when Obama shook Hugo Chavez’s hand don’t bat an eyelash when their hero Limbaugh advocates foreign soldiers coming in to overthrow our duly-elected government? Interesting. Could it be because their patriotism is completely fucking fake (h/t)?

What you have, in both cases, is a hustle, a bait and switch, in which one claims to be hawking patriotism, but in fact, is selling jingoism. If patriotism is love of country, then much of the unquestioning GOP rhetoric fails on the rudiments. Is love of kin, love of siblings, love of spouse, telling your beloved, that they are the best person that’s ever existed in history? Or is that sycophancy, fast talk proffered by loose friends, who in your darkest hours, appeal to your worst self.

There’s a difference between being an actual patriot and an unhinged fucking fanatic. I’ll leave you to decide on which side of the line Rush Limbaugh falls while I turn the Smack-o-Matic on another unhinged fucking fanatic (oops, gave away the answer there, didn’t I?):

Time‘s Joe Klein notices that a certain former U.N. ambassador has a preoccupation with bomb
ing a certain Middle Eastern country, and manages to keep finding major newspapers to publish his thoughts on the subject.

In the Washington Post today, screw-loose wingnut extraordinaire John Bolton has a column in which he advocates an Israeli strike against Iran. This would be shocking, except that…

On June 26, Bolton had an op-ed in the Los Angeles Times in which he advocated bombing Iran. And, well, er…

On June 12, he had an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal in which he advocated bombing Iran.

And that’s just three op-eds in three weeks. We could go back a little further and find Bolton — in op-eds, on Fox News — advocating military attacks on Iran for years.

Would you believe this fanatic is unhinged enough to think we’d be welcomed with open arms? He does:

Significantly, the uprising in Iran also makes it more likely that an effective public diplomacy campaign could be waged in the country to explain to Iranians that such an attack is directed against the regime, not against the Iranian people.

Because, as we all know, that’s exactly what went so well the last time. I mean, the Iraqis loved us so much for bombing the shit out of their country that they declared a national holiday just to wave goodbye. I’m sure the Iranians would be just as happy if we encouraged Israel to bomb the shit out of their country, too:

Spencer Ackerman suggests there’s a problem with Bolton’s approach.

Yes, the Israeli bombs will only kill the bad Iranians. When patriotic Iranians of the opposition see Israeli F-16s raining death from above on Iranian targets, Bolton actually expects them to think, “Boom shack-a-lacka! Here come our Israeli liberators! Let them bomb whatever they like, since even though Mir Hussein Moussavi supports a nuclear program as part of a consensus opinion, I believe Israeli propaganda that says it has our best interests at heart! That’ll show Mahmoud Ahmadinejad! Did you hear that, Aunt Marjam? Aunt Marjam…?”

If there’s one thing that a Bush official should understand, it’s that people under attack from a foreign enemy don’t rush to embrace their more moderate leaders.

You don’t say.

Suppose we shouldn’t be too suprised the WaPo gave Bolton a platform for such dangerous dumbfuckery. I guess they took one look at Glenn Beck, decided crazy sells, and are just desperate enough for money that they hoped Bolton would deliver. Y’see, they had another little cash cow in the works:

The Politico reports that the Washington Post, for a price of $25,000 to $250,000, is “offering lobbyists and association executives off-the-record, non-confrontational access to ‘those powerful few’ — Obama administration officials, members of Congress, and the paper’s own reporters and editors.” While the Politico notes that on-the-record events and conferences are becoming a trend in the newspaper industry, this type of closed, pay-for-access event raises serious ethical concerns.

Which didn’t matter much until news of the scheme broke, and a few folks at the paper realized that the old saw about any publicity being good publicity may be just a little bit untrue:

In light of this morning’s revelations, the Washington Post‘s executive editor, Marcus Brauchli, said he is “appalled” by the proposed “salon,” and said the newsroom will not participate in the event. “We do not offer access to the newsroom for money,” Brauchli said. “We just are not in that business.”

The Post went on to tell staffers that the scheduled event was put together by the corporate office’s business operation, without the knowledge of the editors. But just to remove any questions of impropriety, the scheduled “salon” was cancelled altogether this afternoon.

Oh, yeah. Blame it on the business unit. As if heads of other departments were snow fucking white, right? Go on, pull the other one – it’s got bells on.

I find it amusing that they were selling access they didn’t yet have.

But it’s not quite as amusing as Sean Hannity’s latest desperate reaching:

Sean Hannity usually just smears President Obama for the things that he says and the policies he puts forth, but on this segment he actually attacks him because someone in the audience had a quacking duck ring tone.

You know that the right is completely fucking deranged when their favoritest faux news outlet is attacking the President of the United States because of a private citizen’s ringtone. I mean, we already knew they were deranged. But that, my darlings, is pretty much the epitome of pathetic lunacy. Some kind people need to take Sean off to a nice padded room where he can sleep it off.

Yesterday, we ended Happy Hour with some of the most unhinged, outrageous, and completely disgusting rhetoric ever to come from the right (and that’s saying something, considering how unhinged, outrageous and completely disgusting their rhetoric is on a daily basis). We say the spectacle of Michael Scheuer, a former CIA official, pining for Osama bin Laden to come and blow Americans to smithereens, just to teach Americans a lesson, while Glenn Beck nodded happily in agreement. That Steve Benen made a prediction:

I’d just add that there will almost certainly be no consequences for this. Two nutty conservatives can talk about the advantages of another terrorist attack on U.S. soil — indeed, they can long for it — without facing any real pushback at all. There won’t be any suspensions or boycotts. No sponsors will withdraw. None of Beck’s or Scheuer’s allies will distance themselves, and neither one will be excluded from polite company.

How right he was:

Yesterday, on Alan Colmes’ radio show, Scheuer made similar comments about the national security stance of the U.S., saying that he doesn’t believe that President Obama wants to protect the country “if it costs him votes”:

COLMES: You don’t think the President of the United States, Barack Obama, cares about protecting this country.

SCHEUER: No, I don’t. Because I don’t think he realizes what the world is like outside the United States. […]

COLMES: You don’t think he wants to protect the country?

SCHEUER: I don’t think he can, sir. […]

COLMES: He doesn’t want to protect the country?

SCHEUER: Not if it costs votes.

I just did a Google search for Michael Scheuer. The only condemnation I see is coming from the left. The right, on the other hand, seems perfectly fine with a man calling for Osama bin Laden to blow up Americans. In fact, they’re more exercised about quacking duck ringtones than a man calling for a terrorist attack upon the United States of America.

That says all that needs to be said about the priorities of the right.

Happy Hour Discurso

Happy Hour Discurso

Today’s opining on the public discourse.

Ye gods… the stupid’s so ripe and fruity today, I’m having a hard time deciding where to start. It’s like having my pick of the orchard around harvest time.

And what stranger fruit is there than Michele Bachmann? So strange, in fact, that her fellow Cons have been forced to take her to the woodshed:

Now, in the latest rebuke of her off-the-wall claims about the Census, three out of the four House Republicans on the subcommittee that oversees the Census have released a statement calling her boycott plan “llogical, illegal and not in the best interest of our country”:

“Boycotting the constitutionally mandated Census is illogical, illegal and not in the best interest of our country,” Reps. Patrick McHenry (N.C.), Lynn Westmoreland (Ga.) and John Mica (Fla.), members of the Oversight and Government Reform Subcommittee on Information Policy, Census and National Achieves, said in a statement Wednesday.

“[A] boycott opens the door for partisans to statistically adjust Census results,” the trio’s statement said. “The partisan manipulation of census data would irreparably transform the Census from being the baseline of our entire statistical system into a tool used to wield political power in Washington.”

According to Roll Call, the three Republicans “approached Bachmann privately over the past few weeks and asked her to stop the boycott,” but “decided to go public because Bachmann appeared unfazed by their request.”

[snip]

Census officials have been meeting with Bachmann to try to talk her down from her illogical concerns. CongressDaily reports that McHenry even “showed her printed census materials in the attempt to dispel her fears.” But she remained skeptical.

She’s a Creationist, isn’t she? It doesn’t matter how much evidence you present people like that – they just keep on spouting the crazy.

While we’re on the subject of people spouting the crazy, let’s check in with Glenn Beck, who’s apparently so far gone he can’t even remember the crazy he’s spouted after 24 hours:

Yesterday on his Fox News show, Glenn Beck was conversing with Sen. Jim DeMint, and I guess he decided to get all respectable or something, because he uttered the following:

Beck: I will tell you that I — we discussed this on the radio program earlier today, that, um, a lot of people are calling this, where was it? In the Washington Examiner today. That they — that people are saying that “Cap and Trade” is “Cap and Traitor”. They’re actually — people are starting to view people — both Republicans and Democrat — as traitors to the country. Which I think is over the top. That’s a very specific definition.

Funny thing, because just 24 hours before, on the same program, Beck was running a reward poster on his show naming the eight Republicans who voted for the bill “Cap and Traitors.” His guest, Kevin Mooney of the (you guessed it!) Washington Examiner, called them “traitors” too. Guess that wasn’t “over the top” then.

Nope, cuz that was a different day! Obviously.

Schmuck.

Yesterday, Norm Coleman finally conceded to Al Franken, and thus we ended up with our 60th Dem senator. Today, the right has to face some cold, hard facts (h/t):

Here’s a fun dose of schadenfreude.

Sen.-elect Al Franken’s (D-MN) long-awaited victory in the 2008 Minnesota Senate race seems to have caused quite a lot of stress in the Murdoch-owned press. Remember, this is the same corporation that sued him for his Lies And The Lying Liars Who Tell Them book back in 2003, with the unintended consequence of giving him tons of free publicity to sell books — and elevating him into being a hero of liberal activists, without which he might never have become a politician!

They’re not handling it well:

You know who’s having a hard time adjusting to Al Franken’s Senate victory in Minnesota? Fox News.

Glenn Beck said of the senator-elect, “[I]t shows how crazy our country has gone…. [I]t shows that we’ve lost our minds.” Beck didn’t seem to realize why these words, coming from him, are deeply amusing.

And where else shall they turn for fuel for their fires? Why, to made-up numbers, of course!

During the June 30 edition of his program, Hannity suggested vote fraud by claiming, “[Y]ou have counties as they did in Minnesota where you had more votes than you did people registered to vote on Election Day.” While Hannity did not expand on his claim, a May 28 Minneapolis Star Tribune article reported that a conservative group, the Minnesota Majority, sued Minnesota Secretary of State Mark Ritchie, claiming that “vote totals from [Minnesota election] canvassing boards exceed the stated number of registered voters by 406,398.” The Star Tribune article stated that Minnesota Majority’s report on registration listed one county as “having zero registered voters.” The article also said that “Ritchie disputed the claims” in the lawsuit. From the article:

[snip]

Ritchie said he didn’t know why some counties turned up with zero registered voters in Minnesota Majority’s report. “Their number is so far different from the actual number in the database that it’s not possible for me to speak to it,” he said.

Aitkin County was listed in the report as having zero registered voters and 9,455 certified ballots. But Auditor Kirk Peysar said his county had reported its registered voters and that the number matched the ballots.

So either by outrageous idiocy or outrageous dishonesty, the Minnesota Majority (who begin lying with their name) came up with a list of registered voters that’s completely fucking wrong. But, of course, Faux News personalities slurp up purest bullshit like it’s ambrosia, and then regurgitate the bullshit for their eager audience (which is probably roughly 1/3 true believers and 2/3 people just watching for a good laugh). As long is it fits the Faux News narrative, it’s considered gospel truth. Pretty pathetic for an ostensible news organization, innit?

And, of course, Sen. James Inhofe shows his typical class:

On the same day the Minnesota Supreme Court declared Democrat Al Franken the winner of the state’s U.S. Senate election, Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-OK) welcomed his newest colleague to the Senate by referring to him as a “clown.” In the course of predicting that the Waxman-Markey clean energy bill would be “dead in the water” upon its arrival in the Senate, Inhofe extended an unprofessional greeting to Franken. The Tulsa World reports:

“I’ll tell you what a lot of people are thinking, and that is it looks like things are going to be over and we are going to get the clown from Minnesota,’’ he said.

No, dickweed, you’re getting the commedian from Minnesota. A man, in fact, with a scathing wit, who isn’t afraid to flense folks verbally. I wouldn’t be poking at him if I were you, bozo.

We’ve filled a bushel basket with stupid, and there’s still plenty left on the trees. But the ripest, reddest, juciest stupid was just too perfect not to pick last. My darlings, clear your palettes, and prepare to taste stupid like you’ve never tasted before:

Former CIA official Michael Scheuer has taken some provocative policy positions over the years, but I never thought he’d go this far.

Talking with Fox News’ Glenn Beck, Scheuer argues, “The only chance we have as a country right now is for Osama Bin Laden to deploy and detonate a major weapon in the United States — because it’s gonna take a grassroots, bottom up pressure — because these politicians prize their offices, prize the praise of the media, and the Europeans. It’s an absurd situation again, only Osama can execute an attack which will force Americans to demand that their government protect them effectively, consistently and with as much violence as necessary.”

The context of this is a plan to send National Guard volunteers to the southern U.S. border to address the drug trade.

Instead of saying, “That’s completely insane,” Glenn Beck nodded along, in apparent approval of his guest’s ridiculous argument.

I was trying to think of how best to describe how spectacularly offensive this lunacy really is, but it looks like Adam Serwer beat me to it: “[U]nderstand, this is not unpatriotic. You can wish all manner of horrors on this country, but as long as these horrors might serve a specific political agenda, you’re not being unpatriotic. Unpatriotic is a public health care plan. Unpatriotic is a judge modifying subprime mortgage loans to keep a roof over someone’s head. Unpatriotic is phosphate free detergent. Patriotic is wishing for a terrorist attack on the United States.”

Is that not breathtaking?

Here’s what I’m going to do. I shall print the above snippet on a card. I keep copies of that card with me at all times. And when people try to tell me that the Cons really do love America and want only the best for it, I shall wordlessly hand them the card.

Then they can explain to me why, exactly, I should take seriously a single damned word these fucktards ever say about patriotism.

Any Happy Hour Discurso stands as a testament as to why I don’t take Cons seriously about anything else.

Happy Hour Discurso

Happy Hour Discurso

Today’s opining on the public discourse.

Today’s excuse for being late is that I had the day off, and put it to great good use hiking Ravenna Park, the Washington Park Arboretum, and capping everything off with Star Trek (yes, finally). Pictures to follow, because I know some of you enjoy those.

Without further explanation as to my whereabouts (not Argentina), the burning stupid.

And I think we have to begin this Happy Hour with one of the most dramatically stupid things I’ve ever seen the GOP crybabies in Congress do:

GOP leaders have a new complaint about President Obama: He’s not reaching out to them nearly as much as he did earlier this year, when he road-tested his pledge of post-partisanship, only to get uniformly rebuffed on his first big legislative initiative.

Here’s GOP Rep. Eric Cantor, giving voice to the new GOP gripe:

GOP leaders complain that the phone calls and White House invitations have slacked off — perhaps because Obama’s early efforts to woo Republicans yielded few votes.

“I think that in the beginning they seemed a lot more willing to go in and engage with us,” said House Minority Whip Eric Cantor.

[snip (OMFG, are these fucktards serious?)]

Of course, Democrats respond that Obama’s initial outreach efforts weren’t exactly reciprocated. House Republicans unanimously opposed his stimulus and his budget, and almost all of them opposed the big war spending bill. Many refused to condemn Rush Limbaugh for saying he hopes Obama fails.

And they wonder why they don’t get to hang out with the cool kids. That’s some seriously unmitigated gall, that is. I mean, this is the group that’s responded to Obama’s every attempt at outreach by stamping and crying because they can’t get their way instead of trying to come up with constructive compromise solutions. Why the fuck would Obama waste precious time on a bunch of whiners, whackos, and wankers? Those same shitheads left the country in a shambles – he’s got too much work to do, and stroking their outsized egos isn’t on the fucking agenda. Nor should it be.

At least there’ll be one fewer Con wanker to whine at Obama about how he just doesn’t love them anymore. The Minnesota Supremes handed down a unanimous ass-kicking, Norm Coleman finally saw the neon writing on the wall, and conceded he’s a big fat loser. Al Franken is our newest Senator. Congratulations, Al!

Pay no attention to the fat fuck with ass abcesses:

Right on cue, Rush Limbaugh attacks Al Franken’s victory in Minnesota.

LIMBAUGH: Look at this. From Iran’s press television, the state-run media in Iran: Ahmadinejad gains votes in recount, just like in our country! It had — just like in our country. Norm Coleman wins in Minnesota in a recount, and they keep having recounts, and Al Franken wins. So they had the recount in Iran, and shazzam! Ahmadinejad gained votes!

Hmmm, what to say, what to say. Are we all living in Iran now?

Judging from the sheer number of nearly-nekkid female sunbathers I saw on my hike today, no. Our parallels with Iran are only in Limbaugh’s fetid little imagination.

Speaking of Iran, funny how all the neocon warmongers who get woodies over the idea of using their election difficulties as an excuse to invade, and thus became total warriors for “democracy”, suddenly loooove them some coups:

As post-election developments in Iran spiraled into violence, many on the right were outraged — or, at least they pretended to be — that President Obama didn’t thump his chest more. The administration, conservatives said, should take a firm stand in support of democracy and liberal principles.

In the wake of the coup in Honduras, it seemed the administration was taking steps that even these conservatives would like. The president spoke up personally yesterday to criticize Zelaya’s ouster. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton called on for the “full restoration” of democracy in the country.

So, the right is finally pleased, right? Wrong. The same people who loved democratic principles in the Middle East two weeks ago aren’t especially concerned about the overthrow of a democratically elected president in central American this week.

On the June 29 edition of his Fox News show, Glenn Beck said of Zelaya’s ouster: “They installed their own man, drawing a quick rebuke from Cuba, Venezuela’s president, Hugo Chavez, and our president.” Beck added: “Wow, good company we’re keeping ourselves with.” Similarly, on the June 30 edition of Fox News’ Fox & Friends, in arguing that Obama was “sending the wrong message to our allies and our foes,” Beck stated: “I’m telling you, the policies that we have seem to always embrace our enemies and slap our friends across the face. It just doesn’t make sense to me.”

Apparently, if Hugo Chavez and Daniel Ortega take a stand against a coup in a foreign country, far-right media personalities believe the United States should necessarily take the other side and support the coup, because, well, Hugo Chavez and Daniel Ortega are “bad.”

This attitude was endorsed, not only by Glenn Beck, but also by Wall Street Journal editorial board member Mary Anastasia O’Grady, Drudge, Bill Kristol, and Charles Krauthammer.

[snip]

Now, I realize that developments in Honduras are not cut and dried, at least when it comes to identifying “good” guys and “bad.” Zelaya was poised to work outside the law to stay in power, and his opponents worked outside the law to remove him from office.

But the analysis we’re getting from the lines of Kristol and Krauthammer aren’t focused on the m
erits of the situation. They’re not even addressing the up-until-recently-popular principle of defending democracy at all costs. Instead, they’re offering a child-like approach to foreign affairs (if Chavez opposes a coup, coup = good).

Can we expect anything but “a child-like approach to foreign affairs” from that bunch of assclowns? No? Didn’t think so.

In other assclownery, Glenn Beck proves beyond all doubt he don’t know much about history:

While appearing on Fox & Friends this morning, Glenn Beck managed to make a trio of mistakes when he attacked the Waxman-Markey clean energy bill passed by the House last week. The Fox News pundit falsely asserted the legislation’s effect on our oil dependency would be “none.” Beck then pointed out, incorrectly, that the U.S. purchased Alaska in the “1950s” and that we did so because of our interest in its “resources,” a subtle way of advocating for more drilling in Alaska:

CARLSON: But nowhere in that bill is anything about reducing our dependence on foreign oil.

BECK: None. […]

You know Donald Trump, I want to talk to this guy. When he was on the show just a few minutes ago I was thinking how can you not be laughing at us? How can the world not be laughing at us? We have all these resources. Why did we buy Alaska in the 1950s? We bought Alaska for the resources. And now we say no!

He’s only off by almost a hundred years on when we bought Alaska:

For clarification, Alaska was purchased in 1867 for $7.2 million and soon became known as “Seward’s Folly,” named for Secretary of State William H. Seward, because at the time it was widely regarded as foolish to spend so much money on remote tundra. (Perhaps Beck was thinking of Alaska becoming the 49th state in 1959.) The resources the U.S. was after in 1867 weren’t oil, but fish, furs, and the prospect of closer proximity to Russia from the North American continent.

For a dumbshit who claims he loves America, he sure as shit doesn’t know much about it. Another case in point:

OK, pop some popcorn and pull up a chair. Glenn Beck is calling out the dogs … on Republicans.

He ran a special segment last night urging his audience descend en masse upon the “Cap and Traitors” – Republican House members who actually voted for the Waxman-Markey cap-and-trade bill last Friday – all eight of them. With him to seal the deal was the Washington Examiner’s Kevin Mooney, who besides being in need of a new suit was also in need of a logic text:

Beck: Now, there are eight Republicans who voted for cap and trade. … Look at this map that we put up. It looks like all of the votes — there it is — it looks like all of these votes — and we’re going to have some showers — uh — all of the votes really came, half of the votes, more than half — from those areas. The West Coast and from the liberal Northeast.

Mooney: Well, Glenn, you’re put your finger on it. Uh, the votes, whether they’re Democrat or Republican, in favor of this bill, out of the coastal areas, the elite areas of this country, they’re areas of the country where the energy prices are already high. Democrats and Republicans voted against this bill in other parts of the country where they already are using other fossil fuels and have lower energy prices.

Beck: Isn’t it interesting that those are the areas that are collapsing the fastest?

Mooney and Beck, not to put too fine a point on it, are full of crap. Just by way of example, look at my own home state of Washington, whose delegation voted strongly for the bill, and is included on their list of “coastal states” whose energy prices are supposedly too high. In reality — somewhere far distant from these guys’ residence on Planet Wingnuttia — Washington’s energy prices are among some of the lowest in the nation (for instance, our electricity costs are far below the national average, since we get so much of it from hydroelectric sources. Likewise for Oregon, another “elite coastal” state. Meanwhile, some of the nation’s highest electricity costs can also be found in Florida and Texas — some of the “non-elite” states on Beck’s graphic.

Is says a lot about Faux News that they give a man as consistently wrong as this a platform from which to spew.

Joining Glenn Beck in the heavy competition for Dumbfuck of the Month, Michele Bachmann opened her mouth again. The usual ignorant blather fell out:

On Sean Hannity’s radio show yesterday, Bachmann continued to attack the Census, repeatedly insisting that people should go to her website to “see the Census form for themselves.” Listing off a few questions from the American Community Survey (a long-form survey sent out to one in 40 households each year) that she considers invasive, Bachmann claimed that it doesn’t ask “are you an American citizen”:

BACHMANN: Twenty-eight pages. Sean, you know the one question they don’t ask? They ask, “are you an American citizen?” They don’t ask if you’re here on a visa or when it expires. We have no real idea how many illegal aliens are in our country. But wouldn’t you think, here they are asking every personal question about our lives, they could at least ask if we’re an American citizen? They don’t bother to ask for that. That’s why I think people need to read this census for themselves. If you go to my website, michelebachmann, you can read it.

[snip]

In fact, the American Community Survey does ask about U.S. citizenship and it has since 1890…

[snip]

Additionally, though Bachmann repeatedly directed Hannity’s listeners to her website, michelebachmnann.com, in order to view the Census questions, the questions aren’t actually available on her website.

I can’t believe people actually voted for this fucktard. Maybe they did it because she keeps them amused.

While we’re on the subject of politicians who should be unemployed, let’s check in with Mark Sanford, who’s just admitted that his dear mistress Maria is his “soul mate,” but he’ll “try to fall back in love with” his wife. Oh, and he met with her a bunch more times than he’d previously admitted. Oh, and he’s “let his guard down” with several other women aside from Maria and his wife, up to and including compromising physical contact, but he hastens to assure us he “didn’t cross the sex line.” Oh, and the reason this adulterous, duty-shirking piece of shit won’t resign is because – wait for it – God wants him to be governor!

In a written message to supporters Monday, Mark Sanford asserted that God’s plan for him includes finishing his term as South Carolina governor.

Sanford is facing calls for his resignation after disappearing to Argentina then returning last week to admit an affair.

“Immediately after all this unfolded last week I had thought I would resign – as I believe in the military model of leadership and when trust of any form is broken one lays down the sword,” Sanford wrote in the message, which he posted on his personal website http://www.governorsanford.com and Facebook page, and broadcast via Twitter.

“A long list of close friends have suggested otherwise – that for God to really work in my life I shouldn’t be getting off so lightly. While it would be personally easier to exit stage left, their point has been that my larger sin was the sin of pride.”

You really have to read his whole letter. It’s precious, particularly the part where he decides that the reason he got such so much guff over his dramatically awful governing wasn’t because his position on things like rejecting stimulus money damaged South Carolina so bad, but because his “spirit wasn’t right in the presentation of those ideas to people…”

Yeah. That’s it.

And, rounding out our trifecta of people who should lose their public positions of power posthaste, I give you John Eichelberger:

During a June 19 radio debate, Pennsylvania State Sen. John Eichelberger (R) repeatedly asserted that same-sex marriage is wrong, “dysfunctional,” and would lead to “polygamy, marrying younger people.” (Eichelberger is “sponsoring a Constitutional amendment to redefine marriage as between a man and a woman.”) But perhaps his most shocking comments came when fellow lawmaker Sen. Daylin Leach (D) asked him how gay men and women should be treated:

Leach: Should our only policy towards [same-sex] couples be one of punishment, to somehow prove that they’ve done something wrong?

Eichelberger: They’re not being punished. We’re allowing them to exist, and do what every American can do. We’re just not rewarding them with any special designation.

[snip]

LGBT activists were incensed by Eichelberger’s comments, calling on him to apologize for his “insensitive remarks.” Yesterday, gay and straight protesters briefly met with Eichelberger, “after [he tried] ducking them twice.” They presented him with 5,000 signed petitions asking him to apologize. Eichelberger refused to do so:

EICHELBERGER: You know, the public process is very important in this country. That’s what my bill does. It allows the public to make a decision, which I think is a healthy thing. So I appreciate your support of at least that concept.

SPEAKER: So are you going to apologize to the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender people in Pennsylvania — and all the people in Pennsylvania for those comments about allowing to exist and calling them dysfunctional.

EICHELBERGER: No, I think you know my answer to that. Thank you very much.

Fuck you, too, John. I hope voters in PA do the right thing and vote with their middle fingers come next election. A man who can’t even issue a simple apology for implying that a group of people should be exterminated deserves a chance to take his bigotry into the private sector.

I swear, my darlings, wingnuttia gets nuttier every damned day…

Happy Hour Discurso

Happy Hour Discurso

Today’s opining on the public discourse.

Don’t talk to me about why it’s actually yesterday’s news. Grr, argh. Let’s just say a lot of things broke, my company’s games with schedules due to their pathetic attempts to save a few bucks on holiday pay left us understaffed, and things esploded from there. But look at it this way – it’s Happy Hour somewhere.

And I shall do my best to entertain even though I’m having to type this with the laptop precariously balanced on the arm of the chair due to someone deciding laps are for kitties, not computers.

For those of you wondering if Inhofe could possibly get any dumber, the answer is, alas, yes:

On Fox News this morning, Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla.) insisted the Environmental Protection Agency was given evidence that undermines global warming, so the agency hid it to advance “probably the greatest hoax ever perpetrated on the American people.”

Inhofe said the EPA “absolutely” buried evidence undermining policy on global warming after a researcher’s report claimed that carbon dioxide has had little effect on the environment.

“They’ve been cooking that science since 1998,” Inhofe said during an interview on Fox News.

Inhofe argued that there should be a criminal investigation into the EPA report, as well.

“I don’t know whether there would be or not,” he said. “There could be, and there probably should be.”

In our reality, the EPA has an employee — an economist, not a climate scientist — named Alan Carlin who apparently doesn’t believe in global warming. In fact, he insists that global temperatures are “not going up, and if anything they’re going down.” He submitted a “report” arguing that the government shouldn’t worry about regulating carbon emission, relying on familiar conservative arguments.

Strangely, the EPA prefers the work of actual climate scientists when it comes to reversing a ginormous body of scientific consensus on global warming. I believe, Mr. Inhofe, there is a difference between “burying evidence” and laughing heartily as one files the rantings of an ignorant fucktard with delusions of scientific ability in the nearest circular filing cabinet.

Faux News, of course, is ecstatic over Inhofe’s conspiracy theories. Considering they credulously report satire as news, I’m not surprised:

The blog, Elective Decisions, which features “the satire of Chris Davis,” then wrote up a post saying that Ridge responded to Rush by challenging him to a fight:

So this morning, Ridge went back on Washington Journal, responding to Limbaugh’s rhetoric. “I’m so sick of Rush Limbaugh. He’s the reason we lose elections. He needs to get the hell out of the Republican Party. As far as I’m concerned, he isn’t a Republican anymore. The man’s running. The man’s hiding. He’s too scared to face me!”

Ridge continued his rant, threatening Limbaugh. “Meanwhile, he sits there in his ‘Southern Command Post,’ and destroys the Republican Party! I’d like to just have three rounds in a boxing ring with that guy so I could shut him up! I’m caling (sic) you out, Limbaugh. Let’s see if you have a big enough set of marbles to back up your crap!”

Though the “Elective Decisions” blog is clearly marked as “satire,” the Fox Nation linked to the post and promoted it as if it were based on reported facts:

Fox Nation promotes a satire story as a true story.

Next thing you know, Faux’ll be breathlessly running breaking news stories from The Onion. But what else can we expect from a “news” empire that goes to court to protect its right to outright lie?

Now, most news outlets this outrageously stupid would perish, but not Faux. Oh, no. And I think I have a good idea why: their likely viewers can’t even comprehend the fact that a 5-4 ruling is not equal to a 9-0 ruling:

Everyone knew the Ricci ruling would come down today. It was the last day of the session, and the Supreme Court hadn’t issued its decision yet. By mid-day Friday, we knew the ruling would be released early Monday.

And that, in turn, gave the various players plenty of time to come up with their carefully crafted over-the-top responses. I’m afraid some of the leading conservative activists didn’t use the time wisely.

Wendy Long, head of the Judicial Confirmation Network, which apparently exists for no other reason than to attack Democratic judicial nominees, quickly issued a statement this morning with the headline: “Not Even One Justice Approved Sotomayer In Ricci Case.” Yes, even now, Wendy Long can’t spell “Sotomayor.” The press statement went on to say:

“Frank Ricci finally got his day in court, despite the judging of Sonia Sotomayor, which all nine Justices of U.S. Supreme Court have now confirmed was in error.”

Soon after, on a Federalist Society conference call with reporters, additional conservative activists emphasized a similar line.

Roger Clegg of the Center for Equal Opportunity suggested that the ruling “gives the Senate Judiciary Committee a lot to ask about” and that it brings to light her past statements on this issue.

He was joined by Gail Heriot, a professor at the University of San Diego School of Law in the insistence that each of the nine Justices had rejected Sotomayor’s reasoning in her Second Circuit decision.

There’s a variety of problems with all of this, but the most obvious is the fact that the Ricci ruling was 5 to 4, not 9 to 0.

[snip]

Update: Rush Limbaugh also insisted that Ricci was “a nine-zip decision.” Is the right so far gone that they can no longer count to four?

Short answer: yes. They’re also so far gone that they slurp up slop like this:

NewsHounds:

The headline of the linked article is “House Passes Milestone Energy, Climate Change Bill.” Obviously not happy with the AP headline, the Fox Nation writers, in order to put it in right wing terms the pitchfork gang can understand and appreciate, tweaked it thusly: “Treason? House Passes Direct Assault On Industrial Base.” It is accompanied by a photo of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. The AP article is what real journalism is all about, as it describes what happened in the House of Representatives with no reference to “treason.” The Fox Nation headline is a subjective statement of pure right wing propaganda by those who haven’t read the constitution and is aimed at those who are constitutionally illiterate.

Our right wing is either going to implode from its own phenomenal dumbfuckery, or explode from same. They can’t go on like this without one of those two things happening. I just hope they don’t fatally injure America when they finally pop.

Perhaps they won’t, seeing as how they might eliminate themselves first:

While noting that “conspiracy theories have been a constant in Rep. Michele Bachmann’s political career since she first ran for the Stillwater school board in the late 1990s,” the Minneapolis-St. Paul Star-Tribune’s editorial page called into question the collateral damage that could stem from Bachmann’s irrational 2010 Census fear-mongering. The Star-Tribune points out that not only is Bachmann “a politician interested more in being the face of the fringe element than solving the real-life problems of her north-suburban district,” but that “she may be setting in motion events that could substantially hurt her home state and potentially cost her the office she occupies.” The Star-Tribune writes:

The 2010 census will likely determine whether Minnesota loses one of its eight U.S. House seats; population determines seat allocation. Political experts agree that a few thousand people not filling out census forms may be all it takes for the state to lose a congressional advocate in the nation’s capital. If Minnesota were to lose a congressional seat, Bachmann’s district appears to be candidate for absorption.

I’m torn. On the one hand, it would be a shame for voters to lose a Congressional seat when their population says they should have one. On the other hand, we are talking about a district where the majority voted Michele Bachmann into office. So I think that if her Census fearmongering leads a lot of people to break Federal law and thus lose their seat, I’m going to laugh my ass off with merely a passing pang of pity.

And it gives me hope that these fucktards will crazy themselves right out of public office. That would be awesome.

Happy Hour Discurso

Happy Hour Discurso

Today’s opining on the public discourse.

The Cons are out to destroy America:

It hasn’t gotten too much attention — all things considered, that’s probably a good thing — but MSNBC picked up on the calls from some conservatives for a boycott of General Motors. (The idea also got some airtime recently on “The Colbert Report.”)

A sizable share of Americans, recent surveys show, are reluctant to buy from a bankrupt automaker. Complicating matters, the bailout is triggering a harsh reaction from the conservative end of the political spectrum, with some high-profile pundits calling for an outright boycott of what many are calling “Government Motors.”

Among the most vocal is Hugh Hewitt, who has frequently called for a boycott to protest the “Obamaization of the American car business,” both on his syndicated radio show and on his blog.

Hewitt insists that “individual Americans” must resist buying the automaker’s products because, as he wrote in one blog entry, “every dollar spent with GM is a dollar spent against free enterprise.”

I rarely agree with Joe Scarborough, but two weeks ago, he described the idea of a GM boycott as “stupid,” and the conservative proponents of the boycott “morons.”

It’s simple, really. The government stepped in because an enormous American employer was about to go belly-up. The government can’t step out until Americans start buying GM’s cars. Boycotting GM will either lead to indefinite government intervention or the total collapse of a major American employer. And here are the Cons, calling for a fucking boycott.

Way to go, fucktards.

While we’re on the topic of raging stupidity, let’s check in with Pat Buchanan on the recently-passed Clean Energy and Security Act. Some people think it will lead to a cleaner environment, green jobs, and a chance to nip climate change in the bud. Some others whine about higher taxes and so forth. But Pat’s thinking world domination:

Pat Buchanan on MSNBC during a break in their wall to wall Michael Jackson coverage fear mongering over the energy bill that just passed the House.

Witt: Why doesn’t anyone want to call it a climate bill?

Buchanan: Well, because the science is suggesting that maybe all of this isn’t really happening or it’s not really dangerous or it’s not really man made. Barack Obama, the President is right when he said we shouldn’t be afraid of the future. That is how this bill got passed through fear. We’re all going to change. The climate’s going to change. The oceans are going to rise. Our cities are going to be under water.

But more and more scientists are coming forward to say this is a hoax and a scam which is designed to transfer wealth and power from the private sector to the government sector and from the government of the United States to a world government. Which is what we’re going to get in Copenhagen when we get this Kyoto two agreement.

OMFG, what a remarkable doofus. Only Pat Buchanan (along with other right-wing paranoid delusionals) can look into his tea leaves and see a world government in cap-and-trade legislation. As for those “scientists” he mentions, bet you a dollar he’s talking about Inhofe’s list. These people wouldn’t know a scientist if one personally shoved a beaker up their bottoms.

Cons have been rather unhinged of late, but this energy bill seems to have really brought out the inanity in them. Just take the Con party’s very own sad crying clown:

Irony just called and is more than a little pissed off it keeps getting abused by Republicans:

Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) had a few choice words about House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s (D-Calif.) landmark climate-change bill after its passage Friday.

When asked why he read portions of the cap-and-trade bill on the floor Friday night, Boehner told The Hill, “Hey, people deserve to know what’s in this pile of s–t.”

[snip]

AH-HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

Don’t get me wrong — the bill that was passed on Friday night leaves a metric assload to be desired. But this pretty much sums up Boehner’s position:

[O]ne Democratic aide quipped, “What do you expect from a guy who thinks global warming is caused by cow manure?”

What, indeed?

One could wish stupidity could be limited to the occasional outrageous dumbfuckery over boycotts and bills, but alas, tisn’t. And nothing exemplifies the lack-of-quality of our right-wing punditry so well as this little gem (h/t):

STEYN: SOUTH CAROLINA HAS A CHEATING, SELF-DESTRUCTIVE GOVERNOR BECAUSE OF LIBERALISM

Yup, that’s the message from the insufferable Mark Steyn, along with (as I suggested a few days ago) the talking point that governors should be able to go AWOL for days and days, and the only reason we don’t think so is that we’re zombified addicts of Big Government:

…At the news conference, the governor rationalized his unfaithfulness to Mrs. Sanford by saying that he needed to get out of “the bubble.” …

Although staffers kept up his ghostwritten tweet of the day on Twitter, by Monday state senators were revealing that they hadn’t heard from the Governor since Thursday.

And we can’t have that, can we? …

In a republic of limited government, the governor, two-thirds of the state legislature and the heads of every regulatory agency should be able to go “hiking the Appalachian Trail” for a lot longer than five days, and nobody would notice….

… The real bubble is a consequence of big government. The more the citizenry expect from the state, the more our political class will depend on ever more swollen Gulf Emir-size retinues of staffers hovering at the elbow to steer you from one corner of the fishbowl to another 24/7.

Yup, that’s right — it’s not a problem that he was gone and incommunicado — it’s a problem that we think that’s a problem.

The only thing more pathetic than Mark Sanford’s sexcapades has been the plethora of right-wing justifications for said sexcapades.

Continuing with the media-lackwit theme, here’s a little item you might want to show folks who think they’re getting actual news at Faux News (h/t):

Yes, Fox News has won a court ruling that holds that broadcasters have a 1st Amendment right to deliberately distort news or outright lie on the air. This is a ruling that Fox News sought, and that their lawyers fought for:

A Florida Appeals court ruled there is absolutely nothing illegal about lying, concealing or distorting information by a major press organization. The court reversed the $425,000 jury verdict in favor of journalist Jane Akre who charged she was pressured by Fox Television management and lawyers to air what she knew and documented to be false information. The ruling basically declares it is technically not against any law, rule, or regulation to deliberately lie or distort the news on a television broadcast.

Hey, at least they’re being honest about their dishonesty.

No, this cuts to the chase on the old, tired argument I get when I try to trash Faux News to true believers: ‘Oh, but all the news lies, it’s just a matter of their view.’

Yes, it is true, in the simplest sense of true, that all news is by definition biased. There can be no truly objective news, because it is presented by humans, who have biases. However, this court ruling shows that Fox News, and Fox News alone, as far as I know, deliberately sets out to distort the truth as a matter of course.

And will go to court to defend their lies, distortions and hackery as “free speech.” In-fucking-credible.

I think all of the above fuckery calls for a song:

Happy Hour Discurso